How to crack down on rape;

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The Crisis in Crime
HOW TO CRACK DOWN ON RAPE
By JOHN A. McCREIGHT/Partner, New York
JAMES A. LASH/Manager, Detroit, and
HAROLD A. KATERSKY/Manager, Detroit
Of all the crimes committed in our cities, two receive the
most publicity and create the greatest emotional impact.
These are murder and rape.
Together, these two crimes account for less than one half
of one percent of all police runs in major cities. For ex­ample,
in Detroit, the emergency telephone answering
center receives approximately 1,800,000 calls per year; dis­patches
police cars 900,000 to 1,000,000 times per year; and
records between 2,000 and 2,500 homicides and rapes. Ob­viously
the reason these two crimes receive such attention
is because of their potential ability to shatter human lives.
Murder and rape are not the only crimes to have in­creased
in recent years, of course. Indeed, many police of­ficials
forecast that today's significant unemployment
figures will increase the pressures behind all types of crime.
I n any event, fighting crime has now become one of our top
national priorities. Today a greater percentage of most
municipal budgets is used to fight crime than is used by all
other city services combined.
Since the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Adminis­tration
(LEAA) was formed in the 1960s, several billion
dollars have been distributed through state and local plan­ning
agencies, to police departments, courts, prosecutors,
defenders, drug programs, juvenile delinquency programs,
correction facilities, and many other elements of the
criminal justice system. Even the costs to a city for main­taining
the status quo have increased dramatically. For
example, patrolmen's salaries (including fringe benefits)
have passed $20,000 per year in many communities. The
direct cost of fielding one two-man marked police car 24
hours a day, seven days a week, exceeds $250,000 annually.
What has been the return on this investment in crime
prevention?
This article will deal with the "attack" on one specific
crime that was undertaken by the Detroit police depart­ment
and the relationship of that attack to the need for im­provements
throughout the criminal justice process. The
crime selected by the city for its first attack effort was rape.
This article will examine how to deal with both the crime
itself and the victim, how to educate both the public and
the police, and finally how new techniques of investiga­tion
and prosecution may apply to "attacks" on other
specific crimes. The rape reduction effort was one of many
factors which eventually led police and city executives to a
fundamental reorganization of the entire police depart­ment.
By way of background, here are four statements that
highlight why rape presents a particular problem to the
criminal justice system.
• Only half of all rapes occur between strangers. The
rapist is just as likely to be someone met casually at a party, a
brother's boyfriend, or a stepfather.
• It is often debated whether or not most rape is
"caused" by the victim—the babysitter alone at home who
doesn't pull the blinds; the woman who travels alone at
night in areas known to be unsafe; the girl who stands alone
at night at a bus stop.
• Rape sometimes occurs as the aftermath of another
crime: a kidnapping in an automobile, an assault in a back
street or alley, or a simple breaking and entering into a
home.
• Many rapes are never reported.
When a rape is reported, the police are often criticized
for their attitudes. They are regarded as being insensitive to
the victim's trauma. Their response is usually that the vic­tim's
reaction and behavior are quite understandable to
them but that her attitude, in turn, is often crippling to the
criminal justice system.
First, they point out, many calls which originally are re­ported
as rapes turn out to be nothing more than disagree­ments
between lovers. Second, the evidence will show that
in some cases the crime is the victim's fault; a review of
police records indicates that some women are repeatedly
the victims of rape. Third, the police know that most rapes
are perpetrated by men who will repeat the crime. How­ever,
they also know that the victim is unlikely to follow
through the entire criminal justice process—a necessity if a
conviction is to be obtained and the rapist taken off the
street. Therefore, the incentive of the police finally to
resolve the crime can be low—especially after the victim
"backs out" of a good case, forcing the release of a known
rapist.
If a rape issuch an emotional crime, why don't the victims
follow through to see that the rapist is jailed? First, most
victims want only to forget the entire unpleasant event. The
process of identifying the rapist, securing the warrants,
establishing "probable cause," and then going to trial
continually reminds the victim and her family of the experi­ence.
Due process can drag on for many months, some­times
more than a year.
Second, although some states are revising their laws on
rape, in most states the victim must prove that she didn't
encourage the attack and that she resisted the crime.
Prosecution should become easier, however, under a new
statute in Michigan. For example, the victim need not resist.
Emphasis is instead put on showing that force was used; and
the use of a gun or knife implies force. The maximum sen­tence
in Michigan was changed to life imprisonment, and
the defendant may no longer use the history of the victim to
show that she had a bad reputation. Florida has passed
similar legislation, and California and Iowa have changed
their laws relating to evidence. This can be significant, since
giving courtroom testimony only adds to the victim's em-
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